Defeated reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi (C) raises his arms as he appears during a demonstration in the streets on June 15, 2009 in Tehran, Iran. (Getty Images)
The Guardian Council is Iran’s highest legislative body which also oversees the election.
The presidential election, which took place June 12th, had determined incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be the winner by a wide margin.
These results were strongly disputed by reformist candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi who claim the results were rigged.
The Council’s proposal included a recount of ten percent of the ballots.
Mousavi rejected the proposal in a letter to the Guardian Council published on ghalamnews.ir, his official news organization, stating that an annulment would be the only reasonable solution.
“As it was told before to the Council, the volume of violations and acts against the law [in regards to the presidential elections are] in four groups: a. Actions and campaigns before the Election Day, b. The voting process and the vote count, c. Summation and announcement of the voting results, d. Actions after the election and the announcement of the election results…are such that there is no other solution than the annulment of the election and holding a new one.”
Mousavi went on to outline the categorized alleged violations, which include not letting candidate representatives inspect the ballot boxes to ensure they're empty before the election, and a shortage of ballots, although 12 million extra ballots had been printed.